Beauty & lifestyle

Month: July 2015

If you have been a regular visitor to the blog you might recollect the post I wrote on how using different eye shadow bases opens up a whole new world of possibilities with your current stash of eyeshadows 🙂 (HERE)

Today I thought I’d share an eyelook I came up with while playing around with the golden and brown bases I have in my collection. I used a satin finish pink eyeshadow from a Smashbox holiday palette. I first covered the inner 2/3rd of my lid with the metallic gold eyeshadow base and applied the matte brown eyeshadow base on the outer 1/3rd of my lid and also pulled it into the crease a bit. Then all I did was use a nice big brush and apply the pink shadow all over the lid.

1 shadow 2 bases!

As you can see, the satin finish pink shadow was transformed into a metallic light pink in the inner 2/3 of the lid where I had laid down the metallic golden base. The outer corner looks more purple than pink due to the brown matte base. Overall, the final outcome looks like I used 2 different shadows 😛

Have you tried using multiple bases for creating an eyelook? If not..try it out!! Its fun I promise 😀

The hunt for the perfect eye liner suitable for the waterline is almost like a rite of passage for everyone when they first start wearing makeup (unless of course you don’t like to line your waterline). It is hard to find a liner that lasts on the waterline but at the same time doesn’t irritate your eyes. In my case I think the search pretty much ended when I got my hands on the Chanel Le Crayon Khol pencil.

Chanel Le Crayon Khol Intense Eye Pencil in Noir 61

Yup! It is a pencil liner but do not fear! It is very soft and glides smoothly onto the waterline with no tugging. I no longer have the outer packaging with the ingredients listed but if you google for the ingredients you will see that the first few ingredients are all glycerides. This probably explains why the pencil glides so smoothly.

The pencil is classic Chanel, black with white lettering and comes with a sharpener too! I often use this sharpener for my other eye and lip pencils as well 😉 The sharpener is of really good quality and although the pencil is soft I have never had the tip break off during sharpening.

I find the pencil really gentle on my eyes…no irritation/itching or watering of the eyes. That is a huge plus! I am always careful about what I use on my waterline since it pretty much comes into contact with your actual eyeball.

This is probably not the blackest black liner I have seen but you can easily build up the intensity by swiping it a couple of times on your waterline. I am usually happy with just a single swipe for daily use since it has good pigmentation.

Swatch (single swipe)

I primarily use this liner to tight line but it works great for creating a smokey eye look too. Again, it glides easily on the lids and can be smudged out effortlessly with a small smudging brush.

The only problem I have with this liner is that it lasts only 5 hours maybe 6 on my waterline. But then again, I have yet to find a non irritating eye liner that stays bullet proof on the water line. I circumnavigate this problem by usually touching up with the liner after the 6 hour mark when attending an event but on a daily basis I don’t mind it fading away towards the end of the day. It does not pool below my eyes and make me look like a raccoon so it kind of fades away ‘gracefully’ 😀

The price tag on this bad boy is 29$ but then again we are talking Chanel and since one pencil lasts forever even with daily use I am not complaining. The fact that it has a reasonable lasting power, good pigmentation and is non irritating for my eyes makes it worth the money for me atleast!

What is your favorite liner for the waterline? I would love to hear recommendations!!

Hope your all having a great week so far! Lately I’ve been obsessed with altering the final look of an eyeshadow by experimenting with different bases. It is an interesting way to get new finishes and shades. The same shadow looks really different when used over a matte solid color base versus a metallic one! A matte shadow can become a shimmery shade with a metallic base and you get interesting duo chrome finishes when you put a metallic shadow on top of a contrasting metallic base…the combinations are endless and fun 😀

Here are some pics of my experiments with bases.. First lets take a look at what happens to a matte basic shadow when coupled with 2 different types of bases.

Transformation of a matte beige eye shadow

As you can see a simple matte beige shadow becomes a a purple mauve color with a brown base and a champagne/rose gold shade with a gold base. It is fun to change the undertone of a shadow by messing around with the base..don’t you think so ? 😉

Transformation of shimmery blue shadow

In the case of this shimmery blue shadow, you can see that the brown base deepens and intensifies the blue (almost making it look matte) whereas the golden metallic base brings out the silver shimmer in the shadow more. I have seen many tutorials for smokey eyes where a black base is used to deepen and intensify the smokey shade on the lid 🙂

Transformation of a metallic peacock blue shadow

This last one is one of the reasons I got hooked to experimenting with bases. The original shadow is a metallic peacock blue green shadow which on top of the brown base looks like a brown- blue- green duo chrome metallic shadow. The snap above does not do this any justice ..it looks fabulous in person I promise 😀 The same shadow over a metallic gold base looks like a foil shadow or a very very intense metallic shadow. That is 3 very different shades you can get with just 1 eye shadow!!

Hopefully I’ve gotten you guys interested enough to experiment with bases and transform the shades your kind of bored with into something new 😀

Today I am going to talk about one of my favorite drugstore lipstick formulas! The Milani color statement lipsticks are priced between 6 to 7 $ and for that price point it is an awesome product 🙂

Milani color statement lipstick in Plumrose

As I was saying the formula of these lipsticks is fantastic! It is creamy but not overly shiny. I also like that it does not drag on your lips during application nor does it dry your lips out as the day goes by.

The shade Plumrose is really beautiful! It is a pink shade with a brown undertone. I have seen this lipstick shade look different on different people but overall it looks great on almost everyone! I find it the perfect pink shade for everyday use since it is a understated pink on the lips 🙂

Milani Plumrose swatch

The wear time isn’t super long as you might expect from a matte formula but these do great for being a creamy finish. They do last a good 4 to 5 hours with light eating and drinking and might need to be reapplied after a major meal. This is not a transfer proof lipstick either, they easily leave marks on your cups and Tissue papers 🙂 but then again its a creamy finish and so I ain’t complaining!

Milani Plumrose swatched on the lips

For the price, I find the packaging good too! It is a plain gold tube which snaps shut so you don’t have to worry about it messing up your purse when you take it along.

The only con about this lipstick is the smell. It smells like watermelon (the synthetic kind) and it hits you the moment you open the tube of lipstick. I find that the scent disappears once you apply the lipstick on your lips and so it is still bearable.Thankfully the newly released matte versions of the color statement lipsticks don’t have this smell (Yay! They listened to their customers since many people hated the watermelon scent).

Overall, Milani is a fantastic drugstore brand and I love the formula of the color statement line and the shade Plumrose is too pretty to pass up 🙂

In case, you did not catch my previous post which was basically Part 1 of my haul (HERE) , I decided to split the makeup and skincare purchases since the haul post was getting too long! So, today I will share with you some skincare items I picked up from Turkey. A few of these items are available on Amazon so if something catches your fancy, you probably don’t need to buy a ticket to Turkey to get your hands on it 😉

Skincare haul from Turkey!

1. Dalan d’Olive Moisturizing Cream for Hand and Body

Dalan d’Olive is a brand I saw in almost every big store. It is a Turkish brand whose products are olive oil based. They have a wide range of products, from soaps to shampoos to moisturizers. I have yet to try this out and will get back to you guys on how it performs. I did see this on amazon, so in case you are intrigued by it do check it out there!

2. Rosense Rose Water

This was one of the products I had on my list and I was really happy to find it in a local pharmacy there! It is much loved by European beauty bloggers (especially the Germans!) and I saw that they have a UK based website where you can order it online. The product is basically 100% pure distilled rose water with no alcohol and additives. Rose water is supposed to be extremely beneficial for the skin and functions as a natural toner. I can’t wait to try this out 🙂

3. Agiva soft Sweet Almond Oil

I love to use almond oil for my skin and hair as well, so when I saw 100% pure sweet almond oil on sale I picked it up 😀 . I am currently using up some almond oil , so it will be a while before I bust this guy out!

4. Hand made natural soap

Hand made soaps were all over the place in Turkey! Some of them, like the one I picked up come in cute tins with Turkish tile designs and make good gifts. I picked up a couple of them for friends and family. I plan to keep one for myself 😉 though. I picked up olive oil, argan oil and goat milk soaps. I like the smell of the goat milk and argan oil soaps the best!!

5. Bebak Bademli Cream

This is an almond oil based body cream which I picked up in the travel size. I really like the smell of it and I did use it while in Turkey and found it be be a really good moisturizer. I think the brand Bebak is a very old Turkish Brand known for Almond oil based products. I kind of wish I picked up the full size though!

6. Hamam body scrubber

I actually forgot to include this in the picture! It is basically the scrub mitten they use for scrubbing your body during a Turkish bath. I bought mine from the hamam where I went for the Turkish bath. It is made of coarse cotton I think and is very effective at removing dead skin. After the hamam, my skin was baby soft!!

Hope you all enjoyed this post! If any of you have visited Turkey, do let me know what beauty items (or even non beauty items) you picked up from there!

As I mentioned in my last post, I just got back from Turkey which is not only fantastic for its culture and food but also shopping 🙂 Before I left for my trip I did do some research on the local brands and best places to buy makeup and skincare items. Today I will share with you a couple of items I picked up while on holiday there and hopefully this will help you plan your shopping if you happen to be travelling to Turkey soon!

Makeup haul from Turkey!

First, I’ll talk about the makeup items! I picked up most of these items from a drugstore in Turkey called Gratis. Its very easy to spot in the main shopping street in Istanbul. When I went many of the items were out of stock unfortunately but I still managed to grab a few things!

1. Cindy Lou Manizer

Okay, so this isn’t exactly a Turkish brand but they were having a 40% off sale on the Balm products and I had to pick this up since the after sale price translated to 10 USD !! Score! 😀 I already have the Mary Lou Manizer and really enjoy it, but after using this one a couple of times I think I prefer this since it looks more natural on my skin tone. More on that in a review coming soon!!

2. Essence Lipliner in Satin Mauve

I have heard people talk so much about these and with good reason! They are super creamy and feel amazing on the lips. Again the price tag made me buy it 😉

3. Essence blush up in Heatwave

This is such a gorgeous orange peach-pink ombre blush! I have not seen these in the US so I picked it up. I have used it a couple of times and so far its been great!

4. Eklips natural fan brush

I think this is an in house brand of Gratis and its supposed to be a dupe for ecotools? It is eco friendly and cruelty free. It was around 1 USD and for that price it works amazingly well! I used it to apply highlighter on my cheek bones and it does a beautiful job. After trying this out, I really wanted to pick up some more brushes from the brand but sadly I didn’t have time to go back to Gratis 😦 If you plan on visiting Turkey do check out this line of brushes!

5. Golden Rose Velvet matte lipstick in number 19

Golden Rose is a Turkish brand and I went to their main store in Istanbul. Before I left for Turkey I checked out Instagram posts by Turkish beauty bloggers to get an idea of the local makeup scene 😉 (I know I know..I sound like I have a makeup addiction problem!) and this was one of the lipsticks that was constantly praised! This cost me around 6 USD and the texture of the lipstick is amazing! Its so creamy and comfortable on the lips..I’ll probably review it soon if your curious about swatches 🙂 The guy who helped me out in the store said that a lot of the shades are dupes for MAC lipsticks. I actually have only 1 limited edition MAC lipstick so I can’t vouch for it but I do like the shade I picked out!

6. Pastel nail polish in number 108?

I saw tons of nail polish in Turkey for really cheap prices but eventually I picked up only this one since I don’t have this color in my collection. The shade has no name but I think its number 108..again not sure! I have used this once and the quality is really good..no chipping for more than a week 🙂 I think the brand Pastel and even Golden Rose is available in some European countries. The shade 108 looks perfect for summer, don’t you think!

7. Golden Rose matt top coat

I bought this on a whim and its actually quite cool to use! I can see myself using this for nail art! I tried it out once with one of my OPI nail polishes and it really converted the shade into a matt one when I used this as a top coat. It was really cheap and so I thought it might be gimicky, but it works !

This post got so long I decided to split it into 2 parts! I will talk about some skincare items I got from Turkey in part 2. Hope you’ll enjoyed taking a peak into the makeup items I picked up! Stay tuned for part 2 coming soon!